Despite initial concerns by area residents that next year’s planned construction of Bronson Avenue was not going to incorporate public input, Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes has made sure that the planning is now on the right track.
Holmes was concerned that the project’s technical advisory committee, made up of city staff, had drawn up a preliminary plan that did not incorporate a number of safety plans for pedestrians and cyclists that are already in place.
“It looked to me as though it was all about moving vehicles faster and not about providing safe ways for pedestrians,” she says. “It’s quite a traffic route, so we need to bring everybody’s voice to the table.”
After reading the city’s initial plan for the construction, Holmes contacted the city’s management staff to make sure members of the technical committee were aware of the Escarpment District Plan, the Centretown Traffic Calming Plan, and the Somerset Heights Traffic Calming Plan.
Ziad Ghadban, a city manager of design and construction, says Holmes’ requests have been taken into account and new members have been added to the technical committee who are familiar with these plans.
“We haven’t gone anywhere yet, we’re just putting together a very preliminary plan for discussion purposes,” he says. “We’ve taken that constructive input and we’ll incorporate it into the design.”
Holmes says the public advisory committee, made up of members of local condominium boards, community associations, churches, and business improvement area offices, is ready to meet and add their preferences to the design.
Ghadban says once the public meetings get underway, the plans will be exchanged between the technical and public committees until a plan can be perfected.
Charles Akben-Marchand, of the Centretown Citizens Community Association, is a member of the public committee.
He says he would like to see shared lanes for drivers and cyclists to be added to Bronson, as opposed to separate lanes for each, so that drivers learn to share the road when bikes are there, and traffic can flow as usual when no bikes are on the road.
This is likely to spark a debate once the public meetings begin.
The Escarpment District Plan was most prominent on Holmes’ list of requests for the plan’s review.
It involves adding a park system down the hill towards LeBreton Flats to make the area greener and provide a safer route for pedestrians, as well as redeveloping Ottawa Technical High School property and connecting Bronson to the incoming light rail transit system.
Her work is not going unnoticed. Akben-Marchand says he is happy with the councillor’s initiative.
“It’s at the early stages of things, but Holmes is really on the side of pedestrians,” he says.
Construction is set to begin in spring 2011.